Prehistoric life

Prehistoric life are the diverse organisms that have inhabited Earth from the origin of life about 3.8 billion years ago to the Historic period (about 3500 BC) when humans began to keep written records.

Very few species of prehistoric life (such as the coelacanth) still exist today unchanged, tens of millions of years later, thereby making them living fossils. Yet other creatures, like sharks, have changed but a little over millions of years.

However, most life forms -- over 99 percent -- have become extinct, and so the only record of them ever existing that remains today are rock imprints, casts or other fossils.